Sunday 12 February at 16:00 at Quintinha da Música, Mauro Dilema takes centre stage for our latest concert. Mauro holds a professorship at the Conservatório at Évora where he teaches piano. He also plays in concerts in various venues, and has recently returned from playing concerts in Lithuania and Italy. His programme for this concert includes the Sonata in B Minor by Liszt (composed in 1853); the Chaconne by Bach-Busoni (written around 1720, and arranged in 1893); and Four Last Seasons by Carrapatoso (from 2014). It is a balanced programme from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, and tilted towards the virtuosi of the nineteenth. These pieces demand high technical skill as well as supreme musicianship. Reservations through peterbooker1347@gmail.com at €25 per person.

Our next concert will be on 2nd April, and features three Dutch pianists.

Friday 24 February at 11:00 in Tavira & Tuesday 28 February at 18:00 in Lagoa

Peter´s February talk addresses the question, Was Salazar a fascist? When Peter first spoke about Salazar some 16 years ago, the talk provoked an interesting reaction. He was heckled with the exclamation the Salazar was a fascist, and therefore he was a enemy of the people, and he could not possibly have governed for their good. António de Oliveira Salazar became Minister of Finance in 1928, President of the Council of Ministers in 1932, and left government in 1968 after a near-fatal accident. He was in government office continuously for 40 years, an extraordinary accomplishment. It is true that he maintained on his desk a photograph of Mussolini, at least until 1943. But how did Salazar manage to maintain his grip on power? Should we see his long period in government as a democratic success? As an authoritarian success? Did he use fascist methods to gain office, or to retain power for so long? Peter discusses these themes as well as the reasons to see some positives from his time in government.